4.  The applicants are members of four families. Anvar Ghorbanov and Nasibeh Ghorbanov were born in 1970 and 1975 and are married. Nadereh Ghorbanov, Omokolsoum Ghorbanov, Mohammad Ghorbanov and Ibrahim Ghorbanov are their children who were born in 1994, 1996, 2001 and 2002 respectively. Ologhbeig Rahmanov and Tajkhan Rahmanov were born in 1969 and 1973 and are married. Ameneh Rahmanov, Mohammadali Rahmanov, Maryam Rahmanov, Fatima Rahmanov and Zehra Rahmanov are their children who were born in 1996, 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2008 respectively. Oktamjan Rahmanov and Sedaghat Rahmanov were born in 1973 and 1978 and are married. Rahimeh Rahmanov and Marziyeh Rahmanov are their children who were born in 1998 and 2000 respectively. Zaher Tordiev and Maheireh Tordiev are married and were born in 1980 and 1993 respectively. Maheireh Tordiev is the daughter of Ologhbeig Rahmanov and Tajkhan Rahmanov.
5.  The applicants currently live in hiding in Turkey.
6.  According to the applicants’ submissions, they were living in Andijan when they decided to leave Uzbekistan as a result of increasing State pressure on those who practised Islam. A number of their family members, friends or relatives had been questioned by the Uzbek authorities, imprisoned or even killed for practising their religion. Documents in the case file indicate that criminal proceedings are currently pending in Uzbekistan against seven of the eight adult applicants for attempting to change the constitutional order.
7.  The four families left Uzbekistan separately on unspecified dates and eventually reunited in Tajikistan in 1997. They then fled to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Once in Iran, they initially settled in Zahedan, where they lived for three years from 2001. During that time they applied to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (“the UNHCR”) for refugee status.
8.  In August 2005 the applicants went to Tehran and applied to the foreigners’ police. They were settled in a refugee camp and some six months later they were granted refugee status by the UNHCR. While at the refugee camp the applicants requested that a school be set up within the camp for some thirty refugee children, including theirs. The applicants claim that their request was turned down by the Iranian authorities and they were threatened with deportation to Uzbekistan. Consequently, the applicants fled to Turkey on 21 September 2007.
9.  Upon their arrival in Turkey the applicants applied to the UNHCR office in Van. On 5 January 2008 all the applicants (except Fatima Rahmanov and Zehra Rahmanov, who were not yet born) were given UNHCR refugee certificates. The applicants also applied to the Turkish authorities, which issued each of them with asylum-seeker cards. The applicants were given temporary residence permits until 24 September 2008 and told to report for signature three times a week. They were given food rations. They rented flats and sent their children to school.
10.  The applicants claim that on 12 September 2008 the authorities invited all the Uzbek asylum seekers in Van to the police headquarters for distribution of food rations and school stationery. Some twenty-five Uzbek asylum seekers, who went to collect the items, including the applicants, were placed in detention. Police officers drove the group of asylum seekers to the border that same evening and forcibly deported them to Iran. The Government denied the veracity of the claim that the applicants had been tricked into going to the police headquarters, but they confirmed that the applicants had been deported to Iran on the same day. According to a document signed by two police officers and one military officer, submitted by the Government, twenty-nine Uzbek and Afghan nationals, including the applicants, were deported on 12 September 2008.
11.  A week later the applicants re-entered Turkey illegally. They went back to Van and requested legal advice from the Van Bar Association, which, along with two non-governmental organisations (“NGOs”), published a report on 28 September 2008 regarding the applicants’ removal.
12.  On 11 October 2008 police officers collected the applicants from their homes and took them to the police headquarters. The same evening, the applicants were deported to Iran once again.
13.  According to the applicants’ submissions they had to walk between villages close to the Iranian-Turkish border for about ten days in winter conditions. They subsequently asked for help from the Iranian gendarmerie, who detained them for two days before deporting them back to Turkey.
14.  The applicants’ deportations were brought to the attention of the national and international public through press releases from various NGOs and the UNHCR. Likewise, a Turkish parliamentarian issued a press release within the Parliament and criticised the removal of the applicants as well as the existing refugee protection system in Turkey.
15.  On an unspecified date the applicants’ representative sent letters to, inter alia, the Human Rights Commission of the Parliament of Turkey, the Human Rights Commission of the Van Governor’s office and the Ministry of the Interior.
16.  On 26 November 2008 the head of the Human Rights Commission of the Parliament of Turkey replied to the applicants’ representative that the Ministry of the Interior had informed the Parliament, in a letter dated 11 November 2008, that the applicants had been deported to Iran, a safe third country, in compliance with the legislation in force.
17.  In his reply dated 22 April 2009, in his capacity as head of the Human Rights Commission of the Van Governor’s office, the deputy Governor of Van informed the applicants’ representative that the applicants had been deported to Iran in compliance with the legislation in force and that Iran was a safe third country where the applicants had lived between 2001 and 2007.